Guided Meditation With Ven. Pomnyun Sunim (Nov 1, 2020/S30)

[With English interpretation] Ven. Pomnyun Sunim answers a question during one of his Sunday Meditation sessions. Learn Vipassana Meditation from a Zen Master, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim. "We meditate not to make money or attain fame but to find our way to true happiness and freedom, or nirvana and liberation." by Ven. Pomnyun Sunim.

Transcript

Welcome. We will begin the online meditation with Venerable Pham Nunsinim shortly. Before we proceed, We will meditate for a brief moment to calm our minds. We will begin the meditation with Venerable Pham Nunsinim. We will begin the meditation with Venerable Pham Nunsinim. Hello. Hello. Hello, I am Jelun Dung. I am from South Korea. How was last week? It was a bit cold. I was in the cold. The southern part of Seoul where I am, The fall is getting even deeper. The fall is getting even deeper. I am not sure if it is a good time to meditate. In the fields, All the rice paddy plants have been harvested. So you only have remnants of those plants. The paddy plants are also being harvested in the fields. In the other areas of farming, Everything else has been harvested or picked up. You only have little greenery representing cabbage for kimchi. The trees are growing in the fall. And you have also yellow-red colors coming into the trees. So we are at the peak of the fall color season. The weather is getting better. We are not sure if it will be a good time to meditate. Yesterday, Last night was full moon and we had clear night. So the moonlight was very bright. We are not sure if it will be a good time to meditate. We haven't had frost yet where I live. But evenings and mornings, It is chilly enough to feel it in your hands. Yes, It is very nice. It is very cold. Now that I have shared the weather situation, Let's go with the questions. How often should I meditate? Once per day? Twice per day? More often? How long should each session be? I would say at least once a day. If you can't do it, You should do it once a day. If you can't do it, You should do it at least once a day. If you can't afford the time, The more often you do it, The better. But at a minimum, You should do it at least once a day. Do you have any plans to do it once a day? It is good to do it when you wake up. Do you have any plans to do it once a day? It is also good to do it before you go to sleep. I think it is good to do it once a day. And the rest of the time, Whenever you can get away from a meditation session, That's good. I think it is good to do it once a day. Of course, Meditation may actually bring about inspiration for good ideas. Some people may say, As I said in my Genius you have Yuv cards or a temple, How do you call it? Will we get It is often said that Mahatma Gandhi, In his struggle for independence in India, When he was facing an obstacle that he couldn't solve, He would go down to the basement and engage in a week long or for 15 days of meditation with fasting and would be inspired afterward and come up with ways to overcome those obstacles. That's because meditation allows you to listen to your own voice that's deep inside your subconscious. Next question please. You once told us that meditation affects our subconscious. How does it happen? Is it scientific? Understanding the process would be helpful. We can explain our conscious or our cognition in three steps. So all the information, All that preconception, There are results of all the holistic set of experiences that you have. It can be termed as that part of your cognition can be termed as the eighth step. And the original Indian is areha. Then there's the conscious, What we normally call your rational, Prefrontal cortex basically. So your rational decision making in which you weigh different options and you do the plus or minus and pros and cons and make a decision based on it. That's the sixth step. That's your consciousness. What's snapshots for you? The five senses, The eyes, The ears, The nose, The taste, The touch, And added a sixth one, Because the sixth one is the one that takes the information from all the senses and creates a story out of it, Makes sense out of those sensations. So in that sense, I was trying to map this kind of paradigm into the modern psychology of the West. The sixth step that I talked about can be mapped to what we typically call consciousness, And the eighth can be mapped to what we typically call subconsciousness. When we go to sleep, Parts of the subconscious rises up without much resistance into the consciousness, And that's what we call the dream. Dreams are a hybrid because we cannot control it consciously because we're sleeping. It is part of the subconscious. However, Since we are aware and cognizant that it is happening, In that sense, It is part of the conscious, So it's hybrid with roots in both conscious and subconscious, And that's why it's called the seventh step. So, We can actually get a glimpse into the window of our subconscious through dreams. Is this in mind? Don't TODFLY me in WL into subconscious and like a dream kind of get a glimpse of what's under there. Some of the symptoms you may experience is that kind of a hazy in between state between consciousness and subconscious like a dream. However, If you do not allow yourself to become hazy but can maintain this sharpness, Of your awareness of the breath even while sinking deep into subconscious, It's as if you are dreaming but realizing that you are dreaming. So when we dream, We usually do not realize we're dreaming. We think it's reality. So that's why if a mugger runs after us with a knife, We get scared. However, Imagine if you realize that you are dreaming in midst of dreaming. So that in that case, Whether a mugger appears, Whether a tiger appears, You're not scared because you know it's just a dream. It's not real. Because if there are figurines, Com restroom, There will be people in outside. If there is aDanny-man somewhere at the school or someone is in a very whereby somebodyspirates you The awareness is intact while you are thinking to the level of your subconscious. If you reach this level, What that allows you to do is be fully conscious and aware of the things that lay in your subconscious, Whether you experience a deep trauma or any other actions or activities that may in the subconscious, You are able to be fully conscious and aware as you see them. If you have a deep-sea trauma, Obviously when that gets triggered, It gets triggered in a very emotional way, The memory. So you feel the same level of anger or sadness, You tear up as if it's happening to you today, Right now. If you are not conscious, You are not aware of the things that lay in your subconscious, You are not aware of the things that lay in your subconscious, You are not aware of the things that lay in your subconscious. However, If you are able to maintain a sense of peace, A sense of equanimity, While even observing this deep-seated trauma within you, You don't trigger the same level of emotion. It's almost as if you are watching that experience happening to somebody else, Instead of identifying yourself with it, You can objectify it and create that distance and that leads you to the ability to be able to heal that trauma. In other words, You are healing the deep-sea trauma in your mind and that in effect is the set of your karma. So in other words, This same process can be said to describe your extinguishing of your own karma. When you go through a series of these types of healings, If you have a lot of different traumas or actions in your subconscious that you extinguish through this process, It can be said that your whole personality can change. You can tell yourself and do a new year resolution that you want to change certain things in how you act in your personality. You can swear an oath to it, But they won't change. The only way these things change is if you heal the traumas, The underlying traumas in your subconscious. That's why you need to train yourself during meditation to not pay attention and not follow whatever thoughts that try to distract you, Whether that's from the past or from the future and be able to maintain the clarity of your awareness on the breath. This is the practice that you need. However, Doing 40 minutes a week is not enough to get to that level. It's not enough training. However, If you engage in the process for However, When those memories arise, The trauma becomes triggered. If you re-engage in the same emotional engagement, You're not being healed per se. However, If you can maintain your equanimity and peace and calm while those traumas are being triggered, Then you are on your way to heal them and just keep them as memories, But not allow them to trigger your emotional reaction. The trauma and unhealed trauma actually acts as a barrier to your fully experiencing your past as well as your present and future. However, If that trauma is healed and kind of left with you as a lesson learned, As an experience, Then actually they facilitate you fully enjoying a better and more enriching life. I would primarily advise Terror at first, But mostly it offers an opportunity to preserve yourself into the lights and be more that we are going to meet again. 3rd level moral value. . . . Again a 4th level mistake accompanied at the same time by envy. Being very because of poverty, Then you can use that as a baseline experience to live modestly, For example, Or to feel more compassion or empathy for the poor and really facilitate a lot of positive things in your life. So whatever difficulties you face in your life, Whatever traumas you have experienced, If you are able to heal them thus and reach to this level of enlightenment, Then all these can be lessons learned and added positively to your life. A fine example I usually bring up is that if you have human solid waste and that's in the middle of the room, Then it becomes a nuisance and something to clean up is impure. However, If you take the same thing and put it in the field, Then it becomes a fertilizer that fertilizes your crops. So let's end this question there and start the meditation. The most important critical thing is for your mind to be at rest, At ease, And at leisure. No tension. Don't try to do well. And don't try to give up. With a very relaxed mind. Without making any effort. Just let your mind focus on the tip of your nose. Be aware of the breath in and breath out. If you feel that you are not able to breathe, Then you can't breathe. So whatever distractions arise, Whether thoughts from the past or futures, Or any sensation from the body, Don't let that distract you and just maintain the focus on the breath. However, In reality, In practice, We do get distracted. But if you lose focus, Just know that you lost focus and regain that focus. Don't get excited, Don't get disappointed, Just be consistent. If you lose focus, You lose focus, And you lose focus, Then you can't go back to the present. You can't go back to the present. Like a basketball player shooting hoops, Practicing foul shots. If he goes in, He shoots again. If he doesn't go in, He shoots again. Thank you. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Please! Go ahead! Let's begin. Please. Let's begin. So, We will take the one thing before as you upload your comments. I will make sure that you have the right words, Words, And words. So, During the first weekend, On the 4th, 5th, And 6th, We'll be running a weekend meditation session. We will start on Friday night. Start Friday night. We will start on Friday night. All day Saturday, Then we'll conclude at 6pm on Sunday. We will start on Sunday, Then we will start on Sunday. Basically, Doing what we do in 30 minutes and 40 minute increments, But do that in 26 increments across the day. If you participate in this weekend meditation retreat, Then you are allowed to participate in the activities. If you participate in this weekend meditation retreat, Then you are allowed to participate in the 5-day meditation retreat. If you participate in the meditation retreat, Then you are allowed to participate in the activities. And if you do a consistent block of meditation at once across 5 days, Then if you go back to your daily practice, It will be much better for you to get to that level you want. Yes, I invite you to participate. And I invite your participation. Yes, I invite you to participate. We have a lot of comments now. If you participate in this weekend meditation retreat, Then you are allowed to participate in the 5-day meditation retreat. It was helpful to listen to your explanation of the underlying principles of meditation and then engage in meditation itself. It was a little more lighthearted for me to engage in meditation afterwards. It was a cycle between distraction and breath for me. When I was in the hospital, I was in the hospital with a lot of pain. It was difficult to focus on the breath because of not really distraction from the external sounds, But distraction from within myself. I was able to focus on the breath and not focus on the breath. That's very true. It is our own thoughts that are the biggest distractors. Yes, My leg hurts too much every time I meditate. Is that okay? Yes, It is. It's okay. I was very sleepy, But my legs did not hurt as much as before. I was very stressed out. I was not able to sleep well. Your everyday life tends to be very stressful and you are very tense. If you manage to relax during meditation, You are bound to feel sleepy. If you are not able to sleep well, You will feel sleepy. However, Being drowsy is one of the barriers to meditation. Being mindful, You have to practice being aware despite being drowsy. I noticed tension in my stomach that I released, But then tension returned over and over. I heard animal sounds in the background or in front. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to put my gaze close. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to put my gaze close. I'm not sure. Since your eyes are closed, You don't have to worry about where you're gazing at. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to put my gaze close. Thank you, Sunim. Thank you, Mr. Jason. This is my first time. I coughed during the meditation. A lot of thoughts came and gone. Though my leg hurt so badly, It wasn't that long than I expected. I felt like I was in a bad mood. That's all I have to say. With that, Let's conclude. Thank you very much. I'll see you again next week.